Tommy Malone New Orleans-bred songwriter and former Subdudes frontman Tommy Malone has been an eclectic roots-rock hero for more than 20 years. 2001 and the new disc Soul Heavy mark his debut as a solo artist. Expect an energetic, Radiators-reminiscent blend of everything from country to blues to Cajun soul. Fun Fact: Malone shares a birthday with B.B. King. (Aug. 23, Club More)
RANA Hatched in Princeton, N.J., a hotbed of jam rock, RANA plays open-ended, improv-intensive music that ebbs and flows, snakes and slides, swells and contracts. Guitarist Scott Metzger favors a jazzy, light-fingered style; keyboardist Matt Durant plays a lot of analog synths and wantonly works the pitch-bend wheel. Oh, and RANA features some pretty fair songs, too. (Aug. 23, Orpheum)
—Eric Snider
Rude Squad/Fang Shooey/The Busdrivers Local legend has it that ska-punk funboys Rude Squad very nearly made it onto national television via Conan O'Brien's annual college-band talent search; sadly, they were vanquished in the final round. Don't ask me how, but they manage to avoid sounding as tired as the rest of their genre. Fang Shooey and The Busdrivers ostensibly inject varying degrees of syncopation into their own melodic punk, as well. Fun Fact: Rude Squad are actually some of the nicest guys in local music, ironically enough. (Aug. 23, State Theatre)
WASP/Impotent Sea Snakes/Mushroomhead Do you wanna be somebody? Do you love your L.O.V.E. machine? If you do, you're in luck. Shock-metal pioneers WASP warmed up for this American tour with a seemingly endless series of jaunts through Europe, where, much like cobblestones, pumpernickel bread and Iced Earth, they still seem to matter. Ah, the circular saw blades. The windmilling gray-streaked hair. The fire-breathing codpiece. See it all again — for the first time. Impotent Sea Snakes singer 13 is always telling the press that there's more to his band than image and sexual outrage; we'll get back to him as soon as we tear our eyes away from the bearded transvestite using a strap-on to spank the homeless man grilling hot dogs onstage. The Mushroomhead thing consists of eight or nine angry white men from the Midwest dressing up in coveralls and masks to grind out nihilistic techno-skronk-metal. Sound familiar? Fun Fact: Blackie Lawless is my friend Freddee's uncle. (Aug. 23, Jannus Landing)
Dave Hole Australian bluesman Dave Hole hits our shores in support of Outside Lookin' In, his fifth release for iconic American blues label Alligator Records. Hole's style blends soulful, passionate vocals with some seriously awe-inspiring slide guitar. Fun Fact: There are no alligators in Australia, but virtually every other member of the big lizard family is represented there. (Aug. 23, Skipper's Smokehouse)
Fear w/Car Bomb Driver The masters and the acolytes. The bringers of fire and the torch carriers. Compare and contrast: Fear's More Beer with CBD's Beer Drinker; Fear's masterful employment of irony and blunt-force crowd manipulation with CBD's subtler, contemporary use of same; Fear's heyday-era struggles against censorship and misperception with CBD's infamous Chlamydia incident from last year (which involved this very venue). Scary, is it not? Club More seems to have settled comfortably into hosting bona fide punk legends, and this may be their best booking yet along those lines. Fun Fact: Lee Ving played Mr. Body in the film adaptation of venerable board-game favorite Clue. (Aug. 24, Club More)
United We Stand: A Benefit for The United Way featuring Cocktail Honeys/Sage/Closure/The Chase Theory/E3/Fore/Sixteen Hours An impressive post-alt/emo/pop/rock/whatever summit, in the name of raising a little scratch for our local chapter of The United Way. Now-quartet Sage returns to the State, after jettisoning one of its Les Pauls and a confounding flirtation with makeup — rumor has it that cranking out good, loud-ass rock is once again a priority. Sarasota's E3 recently added a second guitar, and is quickly becoming one of the Bay area's most talked-about acts. Fore, featuring former members of Honeyweed and Sour, work it with a more commercial edge, but no less enthusiasm. Favorites Closure and The Chase Theory will also be in dynamic, melodic attendance, as will pop-punk rookies Sixteen Hours. Fun Fact: Various members of at least five of these bands briefly considered the karmic repercussions of ditching this show to check out either Fear or David Byrne, before taking the moral high ground. (Aug. 24, State Theatre)
Punk and Metal Matinee w/Morphine Drip/Eyesore/No Luck/Wither/The Dollyrots Fresh meat! This is the third or fourth matinee show Mad Music (now located on Central Avenue, up by Asylum) has put on in the past year, in order to give new blood a taste of the big stage. Or maybe just a place they can actually get into, 'cause some of them are, like, 15. Be the first on your block to know about the next hot local and, in all likelihood, the next local you'll see again eight months later, only to marvel at the improvement. The show kicks off at noon, and advance tickets are available from the bands for a buck off of the door price. Fun Fact: A morphine drip is a device used in hospitals to intravenously administer pain medication at regular intervals. (Aug. 25, State Theatre)
Elvis Costello Tribute Show w/Barely Pink/Rock Steady @ 8/Ronny Elliot and the Nationals/The Unrequited Loves/Pagan Saints/The Thrusters/The Fallopian Tubes/Paul Reller and the Distractions/Handshake Squad/Spacious International/Straight Up Blues Band/Ghetto Love Sugar/Sparky's Nightmare/The Crabgrass Cowboys/Bob Anthony The Bay area does love its tribute shows. One of the primary impetuses for setting up a tribute show is the idea that those ignorant of local original music will show up, tune in, and continue to check out the bands they like. One of the fundamental realities of tribute shows is that while they usually do smashingly well, those ignorant of local original music often go home and promptly forget who it was that rocked them. Of course, in the end, none of that matters, because tribute shows are, above all things, a blast for everyone involved. The bands get to hang out, see new faces, drink together and alternately redefine and mangle some of the songs that inspired them to become musicians in the first place. This one boasts an incredible, wildly disparate lineup paying homage to one of rock 'n' roll's most talented and enduring souls. Attendance is mandatory; you WILL have a good time. Fun Fact: Elvis Costello's real name is Declan McManus. (Aug. 25, Skipper's Smokehouse)
Stuck on Evil featuring Daisy Berkowitz I changed my name for you, man! Berkowitz was a Spooky Kid back when Marilyn Manson had a band, instead of a revolving-door retinue of true crime-educated weirdoes (and apparently, his newest guitarist couldn't be bothered). Now Twiggy Ramirez won't even return his calls. He did, however, help pen some creepy, catchy tuneage, so Stuck on Evil might be worth investigating. Keep an eye on your soul. Fun Fact: Manson acolytes Jack Off Jill once implied to South Florida writer Michael Koretzski that bodily harm would come to him if Manson's real name, which is Brian Warner, showed up in print. (Aug. 25, Brass Mug)
Shake Rattle & Grind Boy Burlesque Male Revue The brainchild of NakedPoetry.com's RhondaK, Shake Rattle & Grind is a Full Monty sort of show for local male artists to raise money for their individual projects, such as CD production costs, framing costs for an art show, tour money, etc. Chucky Luv, Ashes of Grisum's Chris Temple, Jeremy Gloff, Hell on Earth's M3, members of The Gita and more will take it off in exploitative worship of that wonderful, loathsome bitch goddess, the Almighty Dollar. Knowing RhondaK, I'm sure there will be all sorts of surprises, guest appearances and good old warped, kinky fun. The terminally bored might also find entertainment value in haunting local gyms for the next couple of days, and finding out who's trying to undo 10 years of abuse with 20 minutes on the Nautilus. In any case, sunglasses are recommended, in order to combat that blinding pale-musician-body glare. Fun Fact: In real life, not everybody looks good naked. (Aug. 26, Irish Pub)
Saves the Day/Dashboard Confessional/No Motiv/Hey Mercedes Vagrant Records celebrates its emo dominance with an American tour featuring a rotating lineup of the label's indie-rock finest. The St. Pete stop spotlights the hugely-buzzed Saves The Day (whose latest disc, Stay What You Are, sold over 15,000 copies in its first week of release) and Dashboard Confessional (the acoustic project of former Further Seems Forever frontman Chris Carrabba, who was featured in last week's Rolling Stone), along with SoCal veterans No Motiv and new signing Hey Mercedes. They're all great bands, with that hooky energy the kids get all frothy over. But, seriously, I'll ask it once and then leave it alone: Where the hell are Bay area labelmates The Gotohells? Fun Fact: Emo is pretty popular right now. (Aug. 29, State Theatre)
—Entries by Scott Harrell unless otherwise noted
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2001.
